SLU Tops Previous RecycleMania Numbers

Saint Louis University recently completed the seventh annual RecycleMania competition, an eight-week event that raises awareness of campus sustainability and aims to increase recycling at participating colleges and universities across the nation.

Student volunteers Molly Meer, Maddie Emerson and Hannah Gilroy helped unload TVs, appliances, electronics and more at the E-waste drive March 31 on the Fred Weber lot adjacent to Chaifetz Arena.

SLU collected more than 345,000 pounds of single-stream recycling during this year’s competition, which ran from February 5 to April 1.

This total includes recycling brought in by:

• Daily single-stream recycling collection at SLU, including paper, metal, plastic and glass.

• Waste diversion from game day basketball recycling competitions for both the women’s and men’s teams.

SLU also took third place in the electronic competition, collecting almost exactly 124,000 pounds of electronics. This is an enormous increase from the 90,000 pounds collected last year. Shred-It and Midwest Recycling Center assisted SLU Facility Services with this year's ShredMania and e-waste drive.

This brings the grand total from the RecycleMania, ShredMania and e-waste events to around 470,000 pounds diverted from landfills — more 40,000 more pounds of waste diversion more than last year.